Come Away with Me
by sonning
Summary: What is the Hero of Ferelden to do with everything turing to ash in her hand. Is she running from responsibility or running to a new future. Cousland x Nathaniel


Dragon Age: Awakening Fanfiction

Just to make you guys aware…. I do not own Dragon Age or anything that pertains to what Bioware created. Just a girl who wants to write a fanfic! So please do not sue me!

I first aspired to write this as a big story with more character development but I didn't like how it felt agonizingly drawn out. And it's hard to write a long story without loosing the feel of the character and story. I really like Dragon Age, and although Mass Effect will always hold a special place in my heart (although they broke my heart with the ending on the last game) this game for filled my need for elves and magic! :)

Always comments, good or bad, are welcomed. I appreciate you all and hope you enjoy!

_**Come Away with Me**_

She was in a rage as she cut through Dark Spawn, progressing her way to the heart of the keep. The feeling of her blade slicing deep into a Genlock's belly like butter.

'_Will this ever end,' _she thought as she dodged a bolt that came from the top of a stairwell, she hurled her blade. The fiend made a gurgle as it lodged in it's neck, she quickly pulled it out to have it fed through another and another and a….

One of the Hurlock leaders grabbed her, catching her off guard, but only for a moment as she took the hilt of her blade and whipped him over the head with it and finished the job by decapitating the poor slob.

'_Slaying the Arch Demon was supposed to be the end of it. Slaying the Arch Demon was supposed to give me back what little of a life I could rebuild!_'

"Commander!"

She snapped back into reality as she looked at Nathaniel. Briefly looking around the room at the bodies. All dead.

'_Rebuild,' _she looked around, the gleam of the firelight and the all to familiar stench of death. As Warden Commander of Ferelden she was supposed to rebuild Vigils Keep, she clenched her fists tightly around her blade. This was the second time the Vigil had been swarmed with Dark Spawn under her command, and although they were prepared for such attack it was starting to become personal.

'_How can I rebuild if everything wishes to turn to ash in my hand.'_

"_Elissa_?" Nathaniel's voice was softer now as he put a hand on her shoulder, the small touch comforting.

"The Vigil isn't lost, not yet." She said meeting his icy blue eyes with her warm brandy ones. There was a longing in the look he gave her. It was unsettling and she knew, like a mouse caught in a cobra's gaze that she had stared too long in his trance as something fought inside her to reciprocate that longing. She shrugged his hand off her shoulder as she went to a door and kicked it open, her blade drawn and hungry.

**~ _One week later..._**

Elissa Cousland put her hands to her head and gave a heavy sigh as she slid down the cool stone wall of her bedroom. She had managed to escape the great hall, away from the bombarding questions from the nobles. Seneschal Varel had given her a wary look as she took her leave, knowing all to well that she rather face another _Blight_ then give a speech. Noble's just liked to talk, and then discus the talk they just had. But there was much to do now with the loss of Amaranthine and the siege on the Vigil, much to think about and nothing she wanted to hear a bunch of nobles talk about. Nobles who were safely tucked away behind these walls as their people died defending them.

Closing her eyes she tried meditate on what to do. She was the "_Hero of Ferelden_," the title was so much easier to bare when everything was black and white, overthrow Logan's treachery and defeat the _Arch Demon_. When there were no hard choices, things were laid out so easy to follow. But she guessed that was the burden of being the Hero, to make those hard choices.

'_Maker forgive me' _she thought, the bright glow of fire and the all familiar stench of death that was brought on the wind out of Amaranthine. She thought she heard cries, she tried to tell herself that they belonged to _Dark Spawn _but she knew she had left people to die, her people.

She was taken out of her uneasy thoughts at the feeling of someone watching her. Tensing at the intrusion Elissa opened her eyes to meet Nathaniel's cool gaze, he had been waiting for her. She grew frustrated as she found her cheeks growing hot as she was reduced to feeling like a foolish girl. She had always fallowed him and her brother Fergus like a stupid shadow, forever wishing to be apart of their game. He was the reminder of her childhood and better days, memories and feelings she fought hard to push aside.

Nathaniel passed her a mug and gave her a smug grin, "You look like you needed something strong." he said as he took a seat next to her.

"I was never good at entertaining guests," she said, taking a glutonus sip. The liquid burning her throat.

"I remember when you showed up to a banquet with your dress covered in mud and leaves in your hair," he chuckled. "Then you did a vary lady like curtsey to Nan who dragged into the kitchens by your ear!"

Elissa crossed her arms, "as I remember correctly you were the one who pushed me into the pond!" she scoffed with a slight smirk, "Nan had spent all day doing my hair and was furious!"

Nathaniel gave a generous gaze, his eyes wandering and remembering a time when she had mud covering her face and her hair in ribbons. She was a puzzle to him, always had been since they were children. With his past stripped from him, a pariah forced to live by wits alone, she was familiar. A piece of his past that was constant.

He studied the woman in front of him, the one he was so determined to kill before. In the eight years that he had been away did he really think she would be the same girl dragging a wodden stick, swinging it up like she was knight in battle. Always begging to play along with them. But she had grown into something a man needed to hold tightly. A haunting beauty that made him think of a forest spirit that men used to talk about in the Free Marshes.

Elegant. Even when her face was smeared with Dark Spawn blood, Nathaniel though of elegance. The slash of cheekbone, high enough for him to think of one of Andraste's statues. Her hair that had once been neatly braided was escaping in wild loose strands of rose gold. She looked like the dancers he had seen from Orlais, a lithe figure even with the bulky armor or wearing a mans tunic and trousers as she was now. But he had been gone too long, for his eyes lingered on her soft mouth more then he would've liked to admit. Had things been different… he shook his head. _'Things were the way they are, it wasn't worth dwelling on what could've been,' _he thought. But there was something in the way she glanced at him, a quiet smile that was inviting, teasing his soul.

"I had been jealous that squire Gilmore had gotten the first dance and there were wispers that he had stolen a kiss, so being 15 summers pushing you into the pond seemed to be the _just_ thing to do." He said taking her mug and finishing the rest of the firery liquid.

"Jealous! You are unbelievable!" Elissa scoffed, "Hypocrite! You had your tongue busy with one of the young maids that evening before the feast and never even looked at me! I was half in love with you like a twittering fool and you never took notice until someone else did! But fret not, Sir Gilmore never kissed me. I am afraid his sights were for my brother." She bursting into laughter, the glitter of her brandy colored eyes seemed to still his breath.

Nathaniel gave a smirk, "was? was in love with me my lady?"

Elissa went to nervously look away but Nathaniel's hand brushed her cheek, drawing her mouth to his. They had kissed before, once when they were camped in the Wending Wood and everyone was fast asleep and the other was when Nathaniel laid on a cot after she had pulled an arrow that had been lodged in his shoulder. The kiss started as those had - a light brushing of his lips against hers.

The pressure increased and she obliged him by opening her mouth to his, the mingle of breath and the feeling of his arms drawing her close. Without realizing it her arms slid up his chest and slid around to the back of his neck. Nathaniel responded with a growl of pleasure as he devoured her.

She fought the pounding in her chest as he lifted her up, still entwined in the heated kiss, and fell onto the bed. One of his hands tangled in her hair, undoing the braid without much effort as the other slid up to cup her breast.

Elissa felt she was on fire, a heat building up in her belly as the kisses drugged her brain. But something inside her mind, reason, fought until her hands came down to his chest, needing air, needing to think. Pushing hard, and knocking Nathaniel back beside her on the soft mattress, their breaths ragged.

Nathaniel watched her, cursing his rashness. But the feeling of her warm lips drugged him. He was half dazzled, half irritated by her- a strange and dangerous combination. He kept waiting for it to pass but with no luck. But looking at her, her golden tresses fanned out like fire as her even breaths made her chest rise and fall, he knew she had bewitched him.

They both rested on the bed, silence engulfing them. He took her hand in his, their fingers linked. The feeling more intimate then the kiss.

"Come away with me _Elissa_," He said, her name slid of his tongue like a song.

Her big doe eyes stared at him, frozen.

"Come away with me," he said again as he held her hand tighter.

"_Nathaniel," _her voice trembled.

_Would they think her a coward? Could she leave her duty behind? Her country? Her people? Could she live with herself, leaving things the way they were? The Wardens? Could she make him happy? _

Nathaniel silenced her thoughts with a kiss, his lips barely brushing hers.

"I love you _Elissa, _and I would follow you into any battle. But there will always be a reason to stay, for duty and honor. Come away with me, we can roam until the taint takes our minds and the Deep Roads consume us."

_Come away with me._

For so long she had felt like a piece of butter scraped over too much bread. But somehow she felt as though she was not running away, but running to a new future. One with him.

"I've always loved you, always will," she said trembling as she brushed her fingers on his cheeks.

Elissa melted into his embrace and knew that together they were home, one that they both needed. He knew her answer in her kiss as the winds howled outside the Keep. Taking comfort in each other that night. Not knowing what was awaited for them next, what would burn and consume them in the darkness that threatened everything.

FIN

ooOOOoo

Hope you guys liked it! It was on the wee bit smutty side but hey sometimes smutty is needed.

I have always liked Nathaniel's character, I hope they use more of him in the third game. There is just something about him, honorable, strong, and has a quiet watchfulness. But yet he is trying so hard rebuild his family name, to make up for the sins of his father. Kinda tugs at your heart stings Lol

But as I said up top, reviews and comments are encouraged!

Thank you!


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